1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to illumination of keys for electronic devices and, more particularly, to illumination of keys for electronic devices using reflected light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices, such as notebook computers, mobile phones, netbook computers, e-readers and others, commonly provide one or more keys for user selection. The keys are often provided in a keyboard or keypad. In order for user to see and visually distinguish between the keys, the keys include legends. For example, a given key might be for the character “a”, the number “1” or a symbol “#”. Providing the legends in a color that has a high contrast to a base color of the keys can be helpful to visibility. In some cases, these computer systems can provide backlighting to the keys. The backlighting provides illumination to the keys so that a user can visually distinguish between the keys. Such illumination is particularly useful when the computing devices are used in low light conditions.
Unfortunately, however, providing backlighting requires additional circuitry and optical components. Backlighting when active also consumes power and thus renders the computing device less power efficient. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide alternative ways to provide illumination of keys for low light conditions.